Nigeria aims to become global powerhouse in agriculture says Akinwumi Adesina, Agric Minister.

[FMINigeria]

                        The Federal Government of Nigeria through its Agricultural Transformation Agenda is implementing a time-bound aggressive plan to unlock Nigeria's potential to become global power in agriculture.

This disclosure was made by the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina while presenting his mid-term report at the ongoing 2013 Ministerial Platform organized by the Federal Ministry of Information.

He said, having identified the nation's agricultural potentials such as land, labour, water and large internal markets, his Ministry, he said, has come up with the "Growth Enhancement Support (GES)" scheme lunched in 2012. He said, with it, government has put an end to nearly four decades of corruption in the seed and fertilizer sectors, all within 90 days. He further reported that his Ministry has also ended the era of direct procurement and distribution of seed and fertilisers by the government.

The Minister also reported that private sector seed and fertiliser companies now sell directly to farmers while cell phone-based system is developed to send subsidies via electronic vouchers (e-wallets) directly to farmers via their cell phones. Besides, he revealed that Nigeria is the first country in Africa to develop the E-wallet for input delivery to farmers and this has reached 1.5 million farmers with 7.5 million people impacted within the first year. He further said that the first ever database of farmers has been developed whereby 4.2 million farmers registered in 2012 and 10 million in 2013.

The Agricultural Transformation Agenda strategy of the Federal Government, the Minister said, sought to strengthen 10 priority value chains across the nation; consequently, for cassava, 24 Million improved stems distributed to plant 10,000 Ha; sorghum, 500MT of improved seed distributed to cultivate 40,000 Ha; Oil palm, there has been distribution of 4 million sprouted nuts to plant 28,000 Ha; and Cotton 1,506 MT of improved seeds were distributed to plant 75,000 Ha.

Furthermore, the Minister reported that on cocoa, 114 million improved seeds were distributed to plant 100,000 Ha; Rice Dry, 264,000 Hectares supported to produce over 1 Million MT of rice paddy; Rice Rainy, 7,100 MT of improved seed distributed to plant 117,000 Ha; and Maize, 67,000 MT of improved seed distributed to plant 3.5 million Ha.

Besides the above, the Minister said, Agricultural Transformation Agenda has added 9 Million MT of food in the first year, including rainy season and dry season activity: 80% above 5 Million MT food target in 2012 and 45% of Its total target of 20 Million MT for 2015.



Via: Federal Ministry of Information (FMI) Nigeria

[Folami David]

That can definately happen only when we start to appreciate Agriculture a little more in this country. We do not appreciate it yet...